Wall Street Journal report confirms the iPhone 8 won’t have Touch ID

One of our biggest fears about the iPhone 8 has seemingly become reality. A report from the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with Apple’s plans, claims that Apple’s next top-of-the-line phone is ditching Touch ID completely.

The report, which is probably as close to iron-clad as we will get before Tim Cook actually takes the stage on September 12th, notes that Apple’s engineers initially tried to find a way to place the Touch ID sensor underneath the device’s screen. Unfortunately, they simply couldn’t get it working in time and ultimately decided to just do away with the feature entirely.

In a potential upside, the report also claims that Apple is indeed planning to roll out a facial identification unlock feature with the iPhone 8 (or iPhone X, if that’s what it’s called) which will act as something of a replacement to Touch ID. However, with how horribly insecure similar security features have been in the past — most recently with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 — this might end up being a real bummer.

Apple also reportedly had issues with the OLED display of the new smartphone, and manufacturing saw several setbacks. There’s no confirmation as to how those delays and issues will affect the initial supply of the iPhone 8, or potentially push back its shipping date, but either way it’s not great news if you were hoping to score the new top-of-the-line iPhone in the launch window.

We’ll finally get to see what Apple has been working on shortly, with the event in just a few days. The hype is already huge, so Apple certainly has its work cut out for it.